The only thing that stops the dust is the rain. It’s a sweet reprieve, but there is no middle ground. The land is either as dry as the Betty Ford clinic, or as wet as the ocean floor. Everything can be seen from the ridge overlooking Armadillo as John Marston gently bounces along atop...

I'm going to be an engineer so math is probably my best subject and physics so go me, almost done with math. Taken all three calculus classes taken and just one more math and done with math classes. I'm actually kind of excited_________________

Rakon wrote:

Happiness from others is a fleeting bliss. Inner peace is the true path to happiness. Go be the best You you can be!

I don't think I have enough Asian in me. I did very well in math until Grade 12, and then I realized that no one did a good enough job of teaching anything that I could understand about math, so calculus never made sense to me, and I haven't proceeded to do anything with it or move forward.

I have been using MIT's open courseware to learn Calc, though. I plan on using that and similar resources to learn more Econ, too. It was misrepresented to me, so I never got into it (which might actually be a good thing, or else I might've stayed in school for an entire decade).

Also, English classes aren't just meant to teach you grammar/spelling.

Revive that "I'm good at [subject] (and willing to help)" thing. ...I'm starting to miss school._________________I sprinkle sand into the waters of night. The grains burn as they fall, reminding me of another in times long passed away. I watched him even then as he fell, his face undefeated, his eyes still proud.

Back when I was taking calc we didn't have these new fangled websites that helped with homework like this or wolfram alpha...

Thisssssssss. I took the minimum requirements for math in high school which was up to grade 11. And I barely passed by the skin of my teeth. I really could've used this website to help turn my D into a B (you were thinking I would say A? Hey I still had to take the final exam.)

Math is essential, don't get me wrong. But there's a difference between being able to figure out how much to tip your waiter and figuring out at what time the waiter will be returning to pick up his tip if he's walking at 5.5 km from the kitchen that's 20 feet away and the time now is 7:21pm and 39 seconds.

LinksOcarina wrote:

We need to change the math curicculum. WE need to add finance and budget management into that again.

As a Bachelor of the Arts and a mathtard, hear hear. Teach me enough math so I can make a budget, tip my server, calculate a down payment and monthly payments, not be misled by graphs, and understand why a politician is lying when he says that eliminating taxes for the wealthiest Americans will make everyone richer.

On a related note, do you guys think that there should be more math in schools? Watch literally any TED talk about education, or read any think piece from New York Times, The Atlantic, Wired, Salon, etc. about education, and you will see the same thing:

America/The West is suffering from a brain drain and losing our technological edge over the rest of the world. Nobody wants to grow up to be an engineer. We are going to be buried by those Asian countries by the next generation. In China, Korea, and Japan they're teaching algebra to frickin' fourth graders! And look at how many engineers they churn out! That's why we gotta eliminate standardized testing and start teaching algebra to grade schoolers, and everyone will want to be an engineer and we will be on top of the game technologically and economically speaking.

Uh, no.

The reason American don't want to be engineers isn't because they aren't totally jazzed about Calc II by puberty. Its because American kids watch a zillion hours of TV every year, and whenever they turn it on, they see millionaire football players, millionaire pop stars, millionaire "real housewives," and millionaire Tony Montana and say "That's what I want to be when I grow up."_________________Less talk, more monkey!

Also, English classes aren't just meant to teach you grammar/spelling.

True, reading comprehension is also a basic skill from High School English that's important for adulthood. But just like with math there was alot of BS English work I hated; for example Shakespeare. I get that it's important to study the classics but I did not enjoy having to interpret old English. I used Cole's Notes to get through Hamlet just to understand WTF they were saying.

When it came to classic books like To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Death of a Salesmen etc, I found it much easier to read and actually enjoy.

People think I'm nuts when I shit on Shakespeare but I don't hate the stories, I just hated having to decipher them on my own. Also when am I ever going to need to talk like Romeo? I'd sound like a pretenious idiot.

But getting back on math.

GiftedMonkey wrote:

do you guys think that there should be more math in schools?

Yes and no. Like Links said there should be more emphasis on budgeting money and lifeskills. I wish we could ban all those contrived word problems from math class. Like the one I mentioned about the waiter.

If kids want to be engineers then go for it. Take extra math courses and become a math whiz. There are lots of "left-brained" (logical) people out there. But for those of us who are more right-brained (creative) and are only taking math in highschool because we need the credits, I think those mandatory course shouldn't be so overbearing. People in their 30's have told me more than half the crap from mandatory highschool math was forgetten in 5 years because it was never essential for what we were interested in.

There doesn't need to be any more math in school. Highschool kids are taught enough math as they need to. The main problem with math is that no one knows how to use any math beyond algebra it in everyday life. If you don't use math constantly you will forget it.

There is a reason the mathematician profession exists and they can be used in just about any situation. Math DOES have a practical use but we are never taught how to use math in an everyday setting so we forget it. Before going back to school, I clearly remembered all math up to trig because I used trigonometry all the time at my old job. I was not an engineer, I was a military intelligence operator who occasionally had to put up antennas. I think the only equation they taught us in training was how to figure out the wavelength of a radio wave, which is a stupid simple equation. Hell, I remember using some math at my job at autozone to figure out how maximize the space on the shelf. I actually got promoted to manager pretty fast at that job just because I knew how to use math.

If kids were actually taught how to use the equations they learn, they will probably more of an enthusiasm towards math.

There doesn't need to be any more math in school. Highschool kids are taught enough math as they need to. The main problem with math is that no one knows how to use any math beyond algebra it in everyday life. If you don't use math constantly you will forget it.

There is a reason the mathematician profession exists and they can be used in just about any situation. Math DOES have a practical use but we are never taught how to use math in an everyday setting so we forget it. Before going back to school, I clearly remembered all math up to trig because I used trigonometry all the time at my old job. I was not an engineer, I was a military intelligence operator who occasionally had to put up antennas. I think the only equation they taught us in training was how to figure out the wavelength of a radio wave, which is a stupid simple equation. Hell, I remember using some math at my job at autozone to figure out how maximize the space on the shelf. I actually got promoted to manager pretty fast at that job just because I knew how to use math.

If kids were actually taught how to use the equations they learn, they will probably more of an enthusiasm towards math.

Pretty much my thought. There's not really much of an attempt to demonstrate actual real uses that are realistic._________________

Kapow wrote:

daylight savings time was introduced under a democratic congress. pretty clear that this is part of the liberal global warming farce, if we are extending daylight hours, of course temperatures will rise, THERES MORE DAYLIGHT!